During the process of soldering components such as electronic devices or conductive contacts onto solder pads (e.g., such as by using conventional solder reflow techniques), gases developed during the soldering process sometimes are trapped in the component/solder pad joint. These gases sometimes cause voids to develop in the solder joints causing weak and unreliable solder joints to develop. The weak solder joints may lead to premature failure of the circuit assembly.
The problem of weak joints further increases if the component to be soldered completely covers the solder pad to which it is to be mounted on, since there is less chance of the gases to escape during the time the component is being soldered. A need thus exists for a method and apparatus for minimizing the effect of solder gases on the component/solder pad joint.